Scientific News

A New Player Emerges in Mapping Protein Structures, Thanks to Lab Technology

Cryoelectron microscopy is helping to unlock the secrets of proteins like never before, due in part to technology developed for one of the world’s most powerful electron microscopes, TEAM, located at the National Center for Electron Microscopy. This shift centers around a new generation of direct-conversion electron detectors, in which electrons hit silicon pixels directly. Robert Glaeser, a scientist in the Life Sciences Division, discussed this new technology in a recent Nature Methods’ News and Viewsarticle. Go here to read a feature article on how scientists are now using these detectors to image many important proteins with cryo-EM faster and with higher resolution.
Adapted from Today at Berkeley Lab, September 20, 2013

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Radiotherapy in Girls and the Risk of Breast Cancer Later in Life

Sylvain Costes (r) and Jonathan Tang (Photo by Roy Kaltschmid, LBNL)

Sylvain Costes and Jonathan Tang of the Life Sciences Division (LSD), working with Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff, formerly of LSD and now with the New York University School of Medicine, believe they have found out why exposing young women and girls under the age of 20 to ionizing radiation substantially raises the risk of their developing breast cancer later in life. Their study points to increased stem cell self-renewal and subsequent mammary stem cell enrichment as the culprits. Breasts enriched with mammary stem cells as a result of ionizing irradiation during puberty show a later-in-life propensity for developing ER negative tumors – cells that do not have the estrogen receptor, which plays a critical role in the normal development of the female breast. More » Today at Berkeley Lab, September 11, 2013

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OpenMSI: A Science Gateway to Sort Through Bio-Imaging’s Big Datasets

Overlay of mass spectrometry images (Image credit: Wolfgang Reindl)

Using cutting-edge mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) technology, scientists can study tissues, cell cultures and bacterial colonies in unprecedented detail at the molecular level. This information is already helping doctors better diagnose diseases, pharmaceutical researchers develop more effective drugs, and leading to the creation of energy efficient and renewable biofuels. Despite the advances, researchers envision these areas of science progressing much faster—if only they had a standard set of computational tools to easily process, analyze and share these massive datasets. Now, they do—it’s called OpenMSI.

The work is part of a larger effort at Berkeley Lab to extend advanced computational techniques to science areas (and scientists) that haven’t benefited from them in the past. OpenMSI was born from the Lab's Integrated Bioimaging Initiative, and is an interdisciplinary collaboration between biologists and computational researchers at Berkeley Lab and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). Project leads are Life Sciences Ben Bowen and Oliver Ruebel of the Computational Research Division. More »
Adapted from Today at Berkeley Lab, August 30, 2013; Linda Vu, LBNL Computing Sciences

New Biochip Holds Great Promise for Quickly Triaging People After Radiation Exposure

Berkeley Lab scientists have helped to develop a tiny chip that has big potential for quickly determining whether someone has been exposed to dangerous levels of ionizing radiation. The chip has an array of nanosensors that measure the concentrations of proteins that change after radiation exposure. The technology could lead to a hand-held device that “lights up” if a person needs medical attention in the aftermath of an incident involving radiation. The technology was co-developed by scientists from Berkeley Lab, led by Andy Wyrobek of the Life Sciences Division, and Stanford University. The scientists report their research in the journal Scientific Reports. More » Today at Berkeley Lab, August 15, 2013

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Even Bacteria Use Social Networks

Using several imaging techniques, a team of scientists that includes Life Sciences Manfred Auer, Jonathan Remis, Amita Gorur, and Marcin Zemlafound that a common soil bacterium stays connected by a network of chain-like membranes. They believe the bacterium uses its network to coordinate social activities — such as evading bacterial enemies and snaring prey — without revealing its location. The research could shed light on how other bacteria work together to pull off important processes, such as breaking down plant material for biofuel production or cleaning up underground toxins. More »

The work is published online in the journal Environmental Microbiology. It has been highlighted in several news media and made headlines on the September 23 web homepage of The New York Times which featured a video on the research.
Adapted from Today at Berkeley Lab, July 19, 2013

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Berkeley Lab Confirms Thirdhand Smoke Causes DNA Damage

A study led by researchers from Berkeley Lab has found for the first time that thirdhand smoke—the noxious residue that clings to virtually all surfaces long after the secondhand smoke from a cigarette has cleared out—causes significant genetic damage in human cells.

Their paper, “Thirdhand smoke causes DNA damage in human cells,” was published in the journal Mutagenesis. The lead investigator was Bo Hang, a biochemist in the Life Sciences Division of Berkeley Lab; he worked with an interdisciplinary group, including chemists from Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division—Lara Gundel, Hugo Destaillats and Mohamad Sleiman—as well as scientists from UC San Francisco, UCLA Medical Center and the University of Texas. More »
Adapted from Today at Berkeley Lab, June 21, 2013

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Science at the Theater “New Biology: New World?” Panel Includes Manfred Auer

The Berkeley Repertory Theatre had a full house on September 23 hosting Berkeley Lab’s Science at the Theater. The evening’s theme was “New Biology: New World?” and the panel of speakers included Life Sciences Manfred Auer who spoke on “The future of imaging: A new way to explore biology's uncharted terrain, from breast cancer progression to the social lives of microbes.” Other panel members were Biosciences Area Director Jay Keasling, Physical Biosciences Director Adam Arkin and Carolyn Larabell also of Physical Biosciences. More information - including a recording of the event - can be found on the Friends of Berkeley Lab website.

About 50 students from the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions visited Berkeley Lab on July 26 to learn about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Deb Agarwal of the Computational Research Division (CRD) welcomed the group and gave a brief overview of the Lab. Andy Nonaka (CRD) talked about his research in computational cosmology; Ben Bowen (Life Sciences Division) discussed mass spectrometry and Susan Amrose (EETD) explained engineering for economic and social development. The visit culminated with a tour of the Advanced Light Source led by Christine Beavers, Bruce Rude, Thomas Scarvie and Doug Taube. CRD’s Sarah Poon organized the visit.Today at Berkeley Lab, August 1, 2013

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In the News

A review of Life Sciences researchers, staff, and students who have appeared in the news media. This is but a sampling of our coverage. Please note that some links may expire after time.

Honors and Awards Highlights

Lab Wins Record Eight R&D 100 Awards; Winner Includes Northen Team

A generator that uses a virus to convert mechanical energy to electricity and a new material that will boost power storage in rechargeable batteries by 30 percent are among seven inventions by Berkeley Lab scientists that were honored with a 2013 R&D 100 Award, often dubbed the “Oscars of Innovation.” In addition to the generator, winners included these technologies: better batteries with a conducting polymer binder; the On-demand Secure Circuits and Reservation System (OSCARS); universal smart window coating; the Campanile nano-optical imaging probe; optically-detected oil well logging by MRI; cheap, rugged fuel cells that provide electricity where none exists; and high-throughput NIMS screening for low-cost, large-scale molecular samples.

The award winning high-throughput screening tool to support the development of lignocellulosic biofuels was developed by researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), led by Trent Northen, a staff scientist at JBEI and Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division. High-Throughput Nanostructure-Initiator Mass Spectrometry (HT-NIMS) is a high-speed chemical screening system that can precisely determine the molecular composition of thousands of samples arrayed on a small slide of silicon at speeds 100 times faster than conventional methods.

HT-NIMS makes novel use of miniaturization, lasers, specialized chemistries, and robotics. In addition to the biofuels applications, the technology can also be used for a host of biological, bio-industrial, and medical uses, including discovering new drug prospects, cancer diagnostics, and clinical testing. Co-inventors with Northen were Berkeley Lab scientist Xiaoliang Cheng and San Diego, California-based Nextval Inc. More »
Adapted from Today at Berkeley Lab, July 8, 2013

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Jill Fuss Receives Award in Lab Ceremony; Highlights MyFamily at LBNL

Jill Fuss and Paul Alivisatos

In a ceremony recognizing recipients of the 2013 Director’s Award for Exceptional Achievement and the Berkeley Lab Prize – Life Time Achievement Awards (as announced in May), Jill Fuss received her Exceptional Achievement Award in the area of diversity on August 8, in the Building 50 Auditorium. Go here view the full list of award recipients.

Fuss is the chair of the Work-Life Balance subgroup of the Women Scientists & Engineers Council (WSEC). The group, initiated, spearheaded and led by Fuss, is engaged in the discovery of new ways to balance employees’ professional and personal quality of life.

“I feel truly honored to receive a Director's Achievement Award,” says Fuss, “especially since I was nominated by two of my Life Sciences colleagues. I am also grateful for the amazing women of the WSEC and for Laboratory senior management that has been very supportive of our efforts. Together we've been able to bring a fantastic and flexible back-up care program to the Lab that employees can use to provide care to children of any age, elders, and even themselves. And we've just recently launched the myfamily.lbl.gov web portal that employees can use to find diverse work-life resources from lactation rooms to where to take a shower after biking to work. The website has been a major focus for the Work-Life Balance subgroup so I was thrilled to see that it has had an incredible number of page views since its launch in July.”

The website, created by the WSEC and the Diversity and Inclusion Office, is called “MyFamily at LBNL” and was launched in July and highlighted in Today at Berkeley Lab that month.
Adapted from Today at Berkeley Lab, August 5, 2013

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Bahram Parvin Appointed Associate Editor IEEE T-MI Journal

Bahram Parvin has been appointed Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging (IEEE T-MI). The journal encourages the submission of manuscripts on imaging of body structure, morphology and function, and imaging of microscopic biological entities. It publishes original contributions on medical imaging achieved by various modalities and focuses on a unified common ground where instrumentation, systems, components, hardware and software, mathematics and physics contribute to the studies.

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Ellie Blakely Re-elected Secretary-Treasurer RRS

Ellie Blakely has been re-elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Radiation Research Society (RRS) by the society’s members for an additional term of three years starting with the annual RRS meeting in September. The society's objectives are threefold: To encourage in the broadest manner the advancement of radiation research in all areas of the natural sciences; to facilitate cooperative research between the disciplines of physics, chemistry, biology and medicine in the study of the properties and effects of radiation; and to promote dissemination of knowledge in these and related fields through publications, meetings and educational symposia.

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Earth Scientist Christer Jansson Wins $3.5M ARPA-E Award

Christer Jansson of the Earth Sciences Division has won a $3.5 million ARPA-E Award aimed at enabling low-cost, energy-efficient fuel production from natural gas. Jansson’s goal is to design a novel and unique enzyme, a PEP methylase, by engineering an existing enzyme to accept methane instead of carbon dioxide. This methylation process will be employed with metabolic pathway engineering to convert methane to liquid transportation fuel. The research team also includes John Tainer and Steve Yannone of the Life Sciences Division, Romy Chakraborty of the Earth Sciences Division, and industrial partners. Jansson is one of 15 awardees in a category called REMOTE, recently announced by the DOE’s ARPA-E initiative. More » Today at Berkeley Lab, September 23, 2013

Divisional and Employee News

Life Sciences Division Hosts Sullivan Distinguished Lecture

The Life Sciences Division hosted Catherine Park, associate professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, in its first Sullivan Distinguished Lecture on August 22. Park’s lecture on “Imaging and targeting tumor stroma for breast cancer therapy” was extremely well received. The Sullivan endowment was established many years ago to sponsor collaboration between practicing medical doctors of nuclear science with researchers at Berkeley Lab.

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Jonathan Lee Runner up Lab Tennis Tournament

The Berkeley Lab Tennis Club’s annual tournament was held during the evenings of August 21 and 22 at the Davie Tennis Stadium in Oakland. The winner was Mikal Bajdich (center), with runners up Jin-Young Jung (left) and Life Sciences Jonathan Lee (right) of the LaBarge lab. Anyone interested to participate in daily noontime tennis can call Joe Harkins (x7486).
Adapted from Today at Berkeley Lab, August 28, 2013

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Lab Softball Season Concludes with Win for Life Sciences “Animals”

With the start of Fall the 2013 Life Sciences Team “Animals” celebrated their very first Summer Softball League Championship. The Berkeley Lab league was composed of eight teams, including current and retired staff and their partners. The competing teams were: Rated X, Animals, Small Ball, SUDZ, NERSC, Ballpark Estimates, Clone Warriors, and EETD; Steve Blair was league commissioner. Games were played every Wednesday evening on UC Berkeley’s Maxwell Field next to Memorial Stadium. Here some questions for Life Sciences team co-captain Ken Wan of the Celniker lab:

- Why the name “Animals”?
It turns out that the team was originally formed by employees working with former Animal Care Facility Manager Randy Deguzman. “The team pre-dates my employment at the Lab, and may have been started by Randy Deguzman and Bob Springsteen,” explains Wan. “Randy has been captain for the past 30+ years, until his retirement in June 2013. He handed the reins to myself and Noah Schwartz, but managed to come out to some games this year, particularly the playoffs, where he resumed his manager duties. Winning the championship was a perfect way to cap off Randy’s retirement.”

- Who are the animals?
“There are too many to list,” says Wan, “We fielded the most players of any team, every game; it wasn’t even close.” The team roster reveals a total of 26 players, including (ex) Life Sciences co-captains Ken Wan and Noah Schwartz, David Acevedo, Christie Canaria, William Cox, Gabriela Fuentes-Creollo, Julio Gonzales, Justin Ishida, Brandon Mannion, Charlotte Mermier, Ann Parplys, Molly Robertsen, and Tony Smith.

- I heard Rated X were your main competition?
Wan: “Actually, many of the teams gave us a hard time. Rated X and the Sudz beat us in the regular season, and we had to fight hard to beat both teams in the playoffs (Sudz took us to extra-innings in the first playoff game, and we had to come from 3 runs down to beat Rated X in the championship game). Ball Park Estimates is another long-time competitor, but they had personnel issues this year. And it was sad to see some other old teams drop out of the league this year, namely Over-Fifty and Silver and Black. Small Ball always plays us tough, on the field and at La Val’s.”

- Did you find a particular strategy most effective?
Wan: “Yes, have the most fun and have even more fun after the game at La Val’s!”